Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (609 page)
Read Complete Works of Wilkie Collins Online
Authors: Wilkie Collins
This famous work was first published in 1868 and is an epistolary novel, generally considered the first detective novel in the English language. The story was originally serialised in Charles Dickens’ magazine
All the Year Round
. Besides creating many of the characteristics of detective novels, The Moonstone also represented Collins’ social opinions by his treatment of the Indians and the servants in the novel. The Moonstone of the title is a diamond, which gained its name from its association with the Hindu god of the moon. Originally set in the forehead of a sacred statue of the god at Somnath, and later at Benares, it was said to be protected by hereditary guardians on the orders of Vishnu, and to wax and wane in brilliance along with the light of the moon.
A Romance
CONTENTS
THE STORMING OF SERINGAPATAM (1799)
Contributed by MATHEW BRUFF, Solicitor, of Gray’s Inn Square
THE STORMING OF SERINGAPATAM (1799)
Extracted from a Family Paper
I address these lines — written in India — to my relatives in England.
My object is to explain the motive which has induced me to refuse the right hand of friendship to my cousin, John Herncastle. The reserve which I have hitherto maintained in this matter has been misinterpreted by members of my family whose good opinion I cannot consent to forfeit. I request them to suspend their decision until they have read my narrative. And I declare, on my word of honour, that what I am now about to write is, strictly and literally, the truth.
The private difference between my cousin and me took its rise in a great public event in which we were both concerned — the storming of Seringapatam, under General Baird, on the 4th of May, 1799.
In order that the circumstances may be clearly understood, I must revert for a moment to the period before the assault, and to the stories current in our camp of the treasure in jewels and gold stored up in the Palace of Seringapatam.